AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #25NICK SPENCER (W) • RYAN OTTLEY (A/C)Variant Cover by WALTER SIMONSONVARIANT COVER BY GREG SMALLWOODHIDDEN GEM VARIANT COVER BY TBAVARIANT COVER BY Dan HippVARIANT COVER BY TBAVARIANT COVER BY TBACARNAGE-IZED VARIANT COVER BY TODD NAUCKPOP CHART VARIANT COVER ALSO AVAILABLEBLANK VARIANT COVER ALSO AVAILABLE• Year two of Nick Spencer, Ryan Ottley and Humberto Ramos’ run on ASM begins here!• In the giant-sized main story, Spider-Man and Mary Jane find themselves in an INCREDIBLY tough situation, thanks to Electro. Can Spidey save MJ? CAN MJ SAVE SPIDEY?• What is Mysterio cooking, and what does it have to do with the bandaged villain who has been on the periphery since #1?!• All this, plus a story by Dan Hipp (TEEN TITANS GO! Art Director), internet sensation Keaton Patti and MORE!72 PGS./Rated T …$7.99

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #27NICK SPENCER (W) • KEV WALKER (A) • Cover by RYAN OTTLEYBring on the Bad Guys Variant Cover by WOO CHUL LEE• There is a new Sinister Syndicate!• Beetle, Electro, Lady Octopus, Scorpia and White Rabbit have come together for one reason: TO HUNT BOOMERANG!• Spidey knew having Boomerang as a roommate would come back to bite him, but not like this.32 PGS./Rated T …$3.99

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #28NICK SPENCER (W) • KEV WALKER (A) • Cover by RYAN OTTLEYBring on the Bad Guys Variant Cover by TBA• RULE OF THUMB: Don’t tick off Wilson Fisk, A.K.A. Mayor of NYC, A.K.A. FORMER (“Former”?) Kingpin of Crime.• Sadly, Fred Myers (A.K.A. Boomerang) was never good with rules.• Spider-Man is caught in the middle of this mess – and that thing that must also come with great power won’t let him just walk away.32 PGS./Rated T …$3.99

Nick Spencer and Ryan Ottley tie up the loose ends of “Hunted” with this epilogue issue, setting the stage for what comes next in this run. But decompression has really ground this book to a halt. Even as Spencer makes sure to dot his eyes and cross his tees before moving on, it’s hard to muster more than a shrug for what he’s building. Ottley’s return is welcome and he sells the emotional beats of the story well, but Spencer’s script fails to really move the needle.

I’ve talked before about how superhero comic books tend to have a problem with mining nostalgia that readers have for old stories while failing to move their characters forward in meaningful ways. And despite Spencer bringing back some fan-favorite concepts to his run with Spidey, the work has felt like it’s backsliding. Every time something old comes back, it feels like something recent has to be put away. Love or hate Dan Slott’s run on the character, but you can’t deny that he didn’t at least try to introduce new concepts to the characters with “Big Time,” “Superior Spider-Man,” and “Spider-Verse” having a fairly distinct visual style, tone and mission. At the end of “Hunted,” Spencer gives us a new Kraven who looks exactly like the old one, a new Sinister (err, Savage) Six and an unhinged Lizard. He’s building up another villain as well, but it's too early for that character to feel like a unique threat.

On a less macro level though, there’s a lot about what Spencer does here. Taskmaster and Black Ant remain the stalwart scene-stealers that they’ve been throughout Spencer’s run. The book is bookended by scenes of Peter and Sergei crying in the aftermath of this story and that brings a nice sense of closure and symmetry to the issue. This isn’t a poorly constructed book, but much like the last issue, it has very little to say and Spencer’s writing lacks a thematic direction.

Ottley is a big reason why those emotional bookends work so well, and it’s nice to see his angular linework return to the title. He’s got a great handle on his characters and their body language, though he doesn’t always vary his expression work enough and that leads to the Avengers looking more than a little constipated throughout their little cameo. But he makes that black Spider-Man suit look really good, and his work with Peter and MJ specifically really sings. Nathan Fairbairn’s coloring is really natural throughout the book which really smooths out the somewhat disparate nature of the script that needs to jump around to deliver some closure. This is a good outing by the art team on a relatively quiet issue.

Amazing Spider-Man feels like it’s in a weird holding pattern under Spencer’s pen - always looking back and never really pushing forward. Superhero comics will only ever really give us the illusion of change, but that doesn’t mean that interesting work can’t be done with them. Maybe it’s too early to consider what Spencer is trying to say with his run, but hopefully he’ll do less to honor the past and more to make his work stand out in the annals of Spidey’s long publishing history.